The Silence of Malachor
by StarWings009
Summary: Malachor V. Forgotten by the Galaxy as history became legend; as legend became myth. An ancient horror thought long buried. Now its screams are quieted, but the darkness wakes once again.


On the edge of the Galaxy, in a system forgotten by time, a cloud of asteroids orbited a hole in the very fabric of reality. The fifth and outermost planet of the system was long destroyed, its shattered remains slowly spinning around the black hole that now hung in space where the planet once had. A great deal of other loose material from the system had been devoured by the hole, including the other four planets, but the remnants of the fifth planet remained, suspended in an impossibly stable orbit around the hole. The star remained as well, just outside the black hole's influence. The two orbited each other in a deadly dance, the star ever trying, ever failing to fully escape the singularity's deadly grasp, the hole ever trying, ever failing to devour its companion. And ever the remnants of the fifth planet spun in their impossible orbit.

But past the beautiful, deadly surface, there lay something even more insidious. A deep and necrotic wound in the Force itself, rotting and corrupting and devouring all life that came near it. All life—save a select few. All life, save those that were like itself, that carried a wound in the world within them. The void could not devour itself, nor could those touched by the void pass from the world so long as the void remained. And the void would always remain, until the end of time when it finally swallowed all light and life.

Close to four thousand years after the final destruction of the fifth planet and the creation of the black hole, a small starship slipped into the system, braving the hole's bottomless gravity well to land on one of the larger asteroids orbiting it. The ship's occupants were a mix of archaeologists and astronomers, one group studying the history of the Sith Wars and the others studying the impossible orbit of the asteroids. They had predicted it to be a quiet trip, with the only interest being the difficulty of making it off the asteroid once they were done. But their ship was designed for studying gravitational anomalies from close range, and so possessed powerful gravity generators to counter the hole's pull. The approach and landing was completed with little incident, and the gathered scientists dispersed to study the area.

Gravity boots crunched soundlessly on the cracked rocks as renowned archaeologist Professor Kadith Nomm marched across the asteroid's surface, two of his young—and to his mind foolish—students scrambling behind him. "Keep up, you two," the Iktotchi snarled into his comlink. "And for the Force's sake don't jump. I don't have time to fill out the paperwork that losing one of you to the hole would cause."

The two students shared a long-suffering look, then continued after their superior. Studying under Nomm, accompanying him around the Galaxy to various historical sites had been a dream come true. _Almost_—if only the Professor was a bit less…abrasive…than the rocks he spent his life digging in, the trip would have lived up to their expectations. He wasn't unkind, but neither was he even close to friendly.

Nomm himself, if asked, would have declared that he simply had no patience for either teaching or dealing with idiot students who viewed him as an academic, rather than the explorer he was.

After cresting a small ridge, Nomm stopped to study his powerful handheld scanner. "The tunnel begins…here," he declared, drew a laser shovel, and began carefully cutting through the rock. "What are you waiting for?" he snapped from somewhere within the cloud of dust thrown up by the tool. His two students shrugged and joined him. He stopped them at least five times to berate their sloppy technique and give them pointers on how to improve it.

Eventually, Nomm deactivated his shovel and stepped back. "At last. Now, you two stand back." And then the renowned archaeologist uncoiled his trusty electro-whip and leapt into the hole.

As his boots hit the cut stone of the tunnel floor, Nomm felt that familiar thrill of exploration rush through him. Here was a place someone had built, somewhere no living being had set foot in living memory. "Well, come on, then!" he said into his comlink, then pulled a glow rod from his utility belt and started down the tunnel.

After about ten minutes of walking in silence, the tunnel ended in a large room of cut stone, the roof held up by numerous pillars. The floor, walls, and the pillars were decorated with what Nomm recognized as a large number of lightsaber slashes, and he felt that thrill grow. He had chanced on an ancient battleground from the days of the Old Republic, just as he had hoped. But as he stepped deeper into the chamber, he realized that it was an even greater discovery than that, for a desiccated, cracked corpse lay in the center of the room, its skin ash grey and scorched with yet more lightsaber cuts. A deactivated lightsaber lay in its outstretched hand, and Nomm carefully pried the cold fingers apart to pick up the ancient weapon and activate it. The blade thrummed into life with the familiar snap-hiss, bathing the room in crimson light. He smiled inside his vacuum helmet. It belonged in a museum, really, but he'd been caught in so many situations where a lightsaber would have been so useful…

Oh well. Time for that later. He deactivated the weapon and attached it to his belt, then gestured to the corpse. "Bag that up, we'll bring it back to the ship," he ordered the students.

Three standard days later, Nomm and his team had finished exploring the asteroid, and were preparing to move to one of the others to investigate it in turn. The archaeologist straightened his krayt-leather coat, adjusted his katarn hide hat so it sat level on his horned head, made sure both his trusty whip and the recovered lightsaber were secure on his belt, then gave the order to lift off.

All was going well until the ship's security officer spoke up. "Professor, we've just detected an unusual sound from the main hold."

Darkness, and in that darkness, silence.

Then gentle humming, the creak of machinery, the sounds of a starship in flight.

Ever so slowly, his one remaining eye cracked open, to see only darkness above him. It was cold, but not nearly as cold as space. Perhaps some kind of cryogenic storage. He had no weapons, but then, he had never truly needed physical weapons. The Force was the only blade he needed to kill.

With a creak, the thing he was sealed in began to open, and soon, he stepped out of a cryo-unit more advanced than any he'd ever seen to stand in a cargo hold half-filled with various crates.

With a thought, he shredded power cables, cutting power to the ship's lighting. He always did work better in darkness.

Abruptly, the lights flickered and died, plunging the ship into blackness for a moment before the emergency lights activated, filling the ship with a bloodred glow. "What was that?" Nomm demanded.

"I don't know," his first officer replied. "Something just…cut the power."

"Any external damage? Hull breaches?"

"None, sir. A number of crucial power transfer cables just…failed," the man said. "Power rerouted through the backups, but it obviously didn't reach the lights…or-or life support, sir!"

Nomm kept his cool as his crew panicked. "Then fix it, you fools!" the Iktotchi bellowed over the din. "Sent all the engineers to find the problem and fix it!"

They rushed to follow his orders, and for a few moments he felt that order had been reinstated. Then the first scream echoed through the ship, before being abruptly cut off. Then another, and another. Then, after a few minutes of silence, another.

Enough was enough. "Security, with me!" Nomm snapped into his comlink. He met up with the security officers just outside the bridge and led them through darkened corridors towards the source of the screams. A scream, quickly cut off like the others, resounded from a dark corridor to their left and he turned hurriedly, drawing and activating the lightsaber. _Something's on the ship with us…this is no mechanical fault or hull breach._

Something moved in the darkness, then a dark shape stepped forwards into the 'saber's crimson light. Nomm went with his first instinct. "Fire!"

Blaster bolts split the air between them and the figure, but none hit as whatever it was blurred away into the darkness. Then the lightsaber deactivated and ripped itself from his hand, leaving them in darkness except for the lights on the security guards' rifles.

Red light flared behind them for a second, and one of the guards collapsed with a cauterized hole in her chest. Nomm drew his whip and lashed out blindly into the darkness, hitting only the wall. Then the next guard died in the same way, and another, and then finally the last as he tried to run.

"Show yourself," Nomm snarled, trying to watch every direction at once. Another moment of darkness, then—

The lightsaber flared to life, bathing the corridor in a bloodred glow and illuminating the deadly attacker at last. The _thing_ held the lightsaber in a reverse grip, the glowing blade lighting it from behind and leaving him in its shadow, but there was no doubt in Nomm's mind that this was the corpse he'd pulled from the asteroid.

He yelled and lashed out with the whip, and the corpse ducked under it and slashed the sparking metal cord in half. For the first time, Nomm felt fear as he struggled to draw his blaster in time. Then the thing was right in front of him and a searing heat speared through his chest and all he could see were its eyes, one a white, twisted scar and the other a maleficent golden orb, and its terrible death's-head grin.

Then Professor Kadith Nomm knew no more.


End file.
